1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a composite reinforced toecap for a shoe, and more particularly to a composite reinforced toecap with a flexible binding so the toecap can be fastened conveniently to other parts of the shoe, such as an upper, a tongue and a sole with stitches.
2. Description of Related Art
Shoes or boots can protect human feet from injury. Especially, the shoes for some purposed usage, such as skating shoes or work boots always need a reinforced toecap to protect toes from injury. A shoe generally has an upper, a tongue, a toecap and a sole. The upper, the tongue, the toecap and the sole are normally fastened or joined together with stitches.
Three methods of fabricating a reinforced toecap for a shoe exist today. The first method uses injection molding to form thermoplastic materials, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), into a toecap. However, a toecap made of thermoplastic materials does not enough protection because the tensile strength and impact strength of the thermoplastic materials are low relative to metal or composite materials. Furthermore, the thermoplastic materials cannot resist cold and become brittle at low temperature. Therefore, a toecap made of thermoplastic materials has weak resistance to cold, is thick to improve the tensile strength and the impact strength and consequently is generally bulky.
The second method uses fiber-reinforced plastic composite materials to fabricate the toecap. Glass fibers are normally used to reinforce plastic materials, such as thermosetting resins for the fiber-reinforced plastic composite materials used in the second method. The fiberglass-reinforced plastics overcome the weakness of the thermoplastic materials and provide enhanced mechanical properties. However, fastening the fiberglass-reinforced toecap to the upper, the tongue and the sole with stitches is difficult because of its rigidity. Sometimes, the fiberglass-reinforced toecap breaks the stitching needle.
The third method is a modification of the previous two methods. The toecap is manufactured with a combination of a body and a separate coating. The body is made entirely of fiberglass-reinforced plastics and has an outer edge. The coating is made by injection molding thermoplastic materials in another individual process and has a shape corresponding to the outer edge of the body. The coating is stuck along the outer edge of the body of the toecap after the body is formed. This kind of toecap overcomes the problems of stitching the toecap to the tongue, the sole and the upper. However, the body and the coating of the toecap normally cannot be firmly bonded because the mechanical properties of the fiberglass-reinforced plastics and the thermosetting plastics are different. Therefore, the body of the toecap may separate from the upper, the tongue or the sole while a person is wearing the shoes.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides an improved composite reinforced toecap for a shoe to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.